The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
The Layer 2 Control Mechanism (L2CM) or the Access Node Control Protocol (ANCP) is an access control mechanism or protocol for the next generation access network. Referring to FIG. 1, there are two function entities on two ends opposite to each other in L2CM or ANCP. One end is a Controller Function Entity (CFE) 5, and the other end is a Reporting and/or Enforcement Function Entity (REFE) 3. Network Access Server (NAS) device such as Broadband Network Gateway (BNG), Broadband Remote Access Server (BRAS) or IP edge device generally acts as the CFE, and a controller function of L2CM or ANCP is integrated in such a NAS device. An Access Node (AN) device generally acts as the REFE, and a reporting and/or enforcement function of the L2CM or ANCP is integrated in the AN.
In above systems, the NAS device, which is the CFE 5, controls and manages the AN that is the REFE through L2CM or ANCP, so as to perform function operations such as parameter configuration. The REFE 3 responses to a control request of the above NAS device, and reports event information actively, where the event information mainly includes status information of the REFE and enforcement feedback information as well as control decision information. The status information of the REFE refers to the topology change information of REFE, such as event information of the status change of a port or a line, where the bandwidth parameter of the port or line is included. The enforcement feedback information refers to the record information of the control or enforcement performed by the REFE, such as multicast accounting information or access statistical information. The control decision information refers to the parameters that are reported to the CFE by the REFE and are sent to request the CFE to enforce the service control decision, such as a multicast authorized parameter or admission control parameter.
A status information report of the REFE includes an access line status information report, i.e., when the AN detects that the status or rate of a line is changed, for example, when the rate of the Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) is changed, the AN should inform the NAS device of the status change event information of such lines actively according to the regulation of L2CM or ANCP. Then the NAS device adjusts or changes the Quality of Service (QoS) configuration parameters of the subscriber dynamically according to the status change event information of the line reported by the AN. Generally, under a NAS device, large amount of access lines may be included. Furthermore, because of the line characteristics of the DSL and the characteristics of the subscriber access line, situations such as rate variation, snap off or re-synchronization may easily occur in the DSL due to the influence of the environment. When the AN reports a lot of status change event information, it will be inevitably induced that the NAS is overloaded. Thus, problems such as denial of service may occur in the NAS.
The status information of the REFE further includes enforcement feedback information. Specifically, the REFE 3 may report the enforcement feedback information to the CFE 5. For example, the REFE 3 reports the multicast accounting information or access statistical information to the CFE 5. Generally, the REFE 3 includes large amount of subscribers or services and may generate a lot of enforcement feedback information. Therefore, the enforcement feedback information reported by the REFE 3 may also affect the performance of the network and devices such as the CFE 5, or may even cause problem because of the overload of the device.
When implementing the present disclosure, it is found by the inventor that in the prior art, at least the following problem exists with the information reporting mechanism in L2CM or ANCP: when the AN sends large amount of information reports, these information reports may cause an impact on the NAS and policy server, and may further cause the problem such as denial of service in the NAS.